Background: Previous research indicates that stress has less effect on the neurobiology of children with disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) in comparison with a controlgroup, and it has a negative...Show moreBackground: Previous research indicates that stress has less effect on the neurobiology of children with disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) in comparison with a controlgroup, and it has a negative effect on executive functions (EF). Children with DBD show deficits in EF. Goal: To examine the effect of stress on the EF of children with DBD. The research question is: To what extent do the EF of children in the age of 7 to 12 years who suffer from DBD, differ from the EF of children in the controlgroup during stress? Methods: 72 Dutch boys participated in this study. The following EF were examined: sustained attention, shifting, working memory and inhibition. This has been measured through parent reports on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and three cognitive subtests of the Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks (ANT). Stress was induced by: telling the child it was going to play a competition against another child which he thought he was going to loose and by negative feedback from the opponent. To test the differences a t-test and ANOVA were used. Results: According to their parents, children with DBD score significant (p<.05) worse on inhibition, working memory and shifting in comparison with the controlgroup. Also there is a significant maineffect of group on sustained attention. Thus children with DBD show deficits in EF. There is a significant maineffect of stress on the following EF: sustained attention, inhibition and shifting. Thus stress reduces the performance on EF. There is no reciprocal influence between stress and group. Conclusion: Children with DBD show deficits in EF. Stress has a negative influence on inhibition, shifting and sustained attention. The groups don’t differ in combination with stress. All children need help in coping with stress, especially children with DBD, because the show deficits in EF during both situations.Show less
Aggression is a phenomenon which is seen more and more in society. Therefore, it is important to research this phenomenon more actively. Aggression has a big influence on the future prospects of a...Show moreAggression is a phenomenon which is seen more and more in society. Therefore, it is important to research this phenomenon more actively. Aggression has a big influence on the future prospects of a child. It has been suggested that less developed executive functions are related to more aggressive behavior. This study examines whether there is a difference in executive functioning in children with a disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) compared to typically developing children. In addition, it is examined if there is a relation between executive functions and proactive aggression and reactive aggression. The DBD group consisted of 37 boys aged 8 to 12 years (M =9.57) and the control group consisted of 42 boys aged 8 to 12 years (M = 9.64). Two questionnaires were used, the BRIEF (Smidts, & Huizinga, 2009) for executive functioning and the IRPA (Polman & Orobio de Castro, 2008) for proactive and reactive aggression. The DBD-group scored significantly lower on all the executive functions than the control group. Correlation analyses on the parental questionnaires indicated a positive relationship within the DBD group between inhibition skills and reactive aggression. An explanation for these results is that children with DBD struggle to resist their impulses and emotion regulation, tend to respons aggressively to frustrations. Moreover, a negative correlation was found within the DBD-group between emotion regulation and proactive aggression. By examining these relationships further treatment can be aimed at specific executive functioning deficits for the different forms of aggression. This could help negate future behavioral problems with these children.Show less
